My Family Is all Back Together!

Well, most of my family. My brother, Tommy, is still down in Mexico, why I'm not sure. Holly decided not to press charges against him, so he's free to come home. What was it he was going to be charged with? I can't even remember now, last season seems so long ago. Oh, how I've missed my Brothers & Sisters! It was so nice to catch up with them after the long summer... Kitty and Robert's marriage is still iffy, and Kitty may be seriously ill, Sarah hasn't had any luck finding love with the whole on-line dating thing (dontcha' think you should at least see a photo of a guy before meeting up?) so she's headed to France to try and find a man before her kids come back home from visiting their dad (who was really icky and hit on Rebecca when they all still thought she was Nora's husband's love child which would have made Rebecca and Sarah half sisters), Justin is marrying Rebecca now that they know they really aren't brother and sister but they got into a big fight at their engagement party (Justin was stressed out because he's flunking out of medical school) and then almost got into a bad wreck, Kevin and Scotty are discussing either adopting or having a child by surrogate (Scotty doesn't seem to be too keen on the idea), Nora and Holly continue to butt heads (but I mean, really- you can't expect Nora to just forget that Holly had an affair with her husband (who conveniently dropped dead before Nora found out about the affair) and tried to pass her daughter, Rebecca, off as Nora's husband's love child. That reminds me- what happened to Ryan, the creepy kid who turned out to be Nora's husband's real love child? Hmm... I can't remember. Damn, I must have more dead brain cells than I realized. You know you're aging when you can't even remember your favorite TV show's plot line from season to season. And that reminds me....


... recently I was trying to remember my confirmation name. Tonight it suddenly popped into my head ( why? I have no idea) - Margaret Mary or was it Mary Margaret? I know it is one or the other! But now I can't remember why I was even trying to remember my confirmation name. This seems to be my thought process lately- just random firing of brain neurons.


Now what were we talking about? The weekend? Well, we went out to Cortez Kitchen last night, had supper and listened to the band. And we actually danced to some fast songs! I added some new videos to my You Tube. If the video seems to catch, just pause it and wait until the red bar goes all the way from left to right, then hit play and it should play smoothly for you. I was bummed that my No. 1 dancer wasn't there. The waitress said he had been there the night before and she showed him the video I put on You Tube of him dancing last week. I guess he liked it because he hasn't threatened to sue me if I don't take it down. Oh- and I called Jacque so she could listen to a bit of the music, but it was so loud we couldn't really talk.


Today we were going to go to the beach, but the radar showed showers moving in from the Gulf, and the forecast was for scattered showers through out the day. So we stayed home but it didn't rain a single drop all day. Around 5 p.m. the radar looked clear, so we took the dogs for a walk. We walked about 1/2 a block and it started raining. We hurried back home and by the time we got there, the rain stopped. Obviously it wasn't meant for us to go out today. This is pretty much how we spent our day and evening-

And yes, she does sleep with her eyes open. Creepy, huh?

Last Saturday Night...

I had intended to post these pictures Tuesday but the days just got away from me. Anyway...


After our day at the beach last weekend, we went home and got cleaned up, then headed to Cortez Kitchen for dinner and music. No flooded streets to block our way that weekend!


Cortez is a small fishing village between Bradenton and the bridge to Anna Maria Island. Cortez Kitchen is a favorite local hang out with a relaxed family type atmosphere, fresh yummy sea food, and friendly people. The seating area is outside under a tin roof, but they have plastic drape like thingies that can be pulled down to enclose it when the weather is bad. But last Sat. night the weather was great- a few storms out in the Gulf and we could see lightning, but it didn't move on shore so all was well.


People not only come to Cortez Kitchen by car- they also come by boat and tie up to the dock connected to the restaurant. Here's a diner's boat tied to the dock ...

Here's what I had for dinner- a platter of fresh peel and eat shrimp. Oh so sweet and delicious! Mike had shrimp and also a grouper sandwich, which he ate before I could get a picture.

I just have to include this photo. This little guy was there all evening, and he had a ball running around! Isn't he just too cute with those long blond curls? He was all smiles all evening, never a whine or a whimper, just having fun. I could've easily taken him home with me.

Cortez Kitchen has live music on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. The night we were there the Michael Mac Band was playing. The regular bass guitar player couldn't make it, and someone else was filling in, but they seemed to do just fine with their substitute. Michael Mac has a bluesy (is that a word?) voice and we really enjoyed listening to him. There was a big table of women having a girls night out and those gals sure had fun, I don't know if they were celebrating something or just a girls wanna have fun kind of evening. And you can see it all on my You Tube page. I've added four videos from Sat. night that I took with my Flip camcorder. Love, love, love my Flip!

And here's the link to the videos, if you'd like to see them.

http://www.youtube.com/user/suncoastlinda1

What is it about sunshine?

The last few weeks haven't been a lot of fun- leaky roof, day after day of gloomy skies, storms and a storm phobic dog, and a personal disappointment. Some of you know that I had a website and blog where I posted letters to my oldest grand daughter that I haven't seen or talked to since the year 2000. Someone recently sent me an anonymous e-mail with a link to my grand daughter's You Tube site. I sent her a message a few days ago hoping to reconnect with her but was rebuffed. Though I was disappointed, it has brought me some closure and at least I know she's okay.


So by Saturday morning, I was ready to get out and have some fun. And thank ya jezzuz, the weather cooperated! It was a cloudless day and the sun owned the sky, so to the beach we went! As we walked to the beach, I noticed how the sea oats and sea grapes had thrived this summer. We haven't had any tropical storms or hurricanes to erode the beach this year- now if our luck just holds through Nov.

Being in the sun, listening to the gulls, and floating in the Gulf water made my spirits soar. The water was so calm, barely any surf at all. And the water was a balmy 86 degrees. These little girls were so cute as they played in the sand at the water's edge.

The water was so calm, lots of people were enjoying bobbing around in tubes and on rafts-

On our way home, I spotted this houseboat at the end of a private dock. I had Mike stop the car so I could get a closer look.

As I approached the dock, I noticed this plaque in the crook of one of the trees-

This is what I wanted a photo of... look at all the potted plants on this houseboat!

I think I could live quite blissfully on that landscaped houseboat!

As if a day on the beach wasn't enough fun, we went home, showered, dressed, and headed to Cortez Kitchen for an evening of yummy food and great music. I'll post those photos tomorow...


I hope you all had a bit of sunshine and fun in your weekend-

If my life...

...got any more boring, I'd be dead. It seems for the last couple of weeks it's either so freaking hot and humid you can barely breath, or it's raining. And if the rotten weather hasn't been bad enough, there's not a damn thing to watch on TV.


Last Saturday we just had to get out and have some fun, or I feared I'd go mad, strip naked and run screaming down the street. So we decided to go to Cortez Kitchen, eat a bucket of peel and eat shrimp, then hang around and listen to the band. It poured rain all day (we got over 5 inches and not one single leak with the new roof, thank ya jezzuz!) and was still raining when we left the house Sat. night. We'd heard on the news there was flooding in areas of Bradenton, but assumed it was mostly neighborhoods close to the river and creeks. I was amazed to see all the drainage ditches full of water and retention ponds overflowing as we drove through town on our way to Cortez ( just a little fishing village on the intercoastal waterway a few miles from Bradenton). When we were just a block from Cortez Kitchen we ran into a flooded street and no way around. So we had to turn around, go back to town and have dinner at Outback Steakhouse. Had a great steak, but wasn't near as good or fun as eating shrimp and then dancing at Cortez Kitchen would have been. But we are going to try again this coming Saturday night- hope springs eternal, dontcha' know?


You'd think I'd be spending all my spare time in the studio completing all my UFOs or working on the house renovations- nope. Evidently my artisitic muse has been as unhappy with the weather lately as I have, because She's gone missing. But I did motivate myself to go into the studio today and start applying paint washes to my naked old lady. After her painting is done, I will add her hair, hat, and jewelry.

I hope you all are having a lot more fun than I have been lately...

Photo of the Week-

The roofing company we contracted with, All Weather Roofing, called Friday evening and said they were sending two crews to put our new roof on Saturday morning. I was amazed they were working on a holiday weekend, but relieved we would have a new roof before it rained again. They showed up early Sat. morning, got to work and by the end of the day our new roof was on! And we haven't had a drop of rain since- LOL But for what we paid for this new roof, there better not be any leaks. Unbelievable how expensive roofs are.

Hope you all had a fun holiday weekend!

Rain, leaking roof, fungi and dabbling of art...

Remember a few weeks ago when I was bitching about our drought? Actually, we're still way behind in rainfall, but it's been gloomy, rainy and drab for the past two weeks. Normally our summers are bright and sunny, with a daily late afternoon shower during our rainy season. I think Mother Nature must be going through menopause or something because she's all screwed up. Instead of daily brief afternoon storms, we're having day after day of heavy cloud cover and with periods of rain. And now toadstools are popping up all over our yard.






And the rock garden is thriving...




And the palm trees are flowering and producing berries or whatever the hell they are called:

And I just took this photo a few minutes ago. See that bank of clouds? That's where the sun should be-

During one of our recent heavy rains, we discovered we have yet another leak in our roof. Remember a year or so ago when during a stormy period a section of my bedroom ceiling caved in from a leak we didn't know we had? We got that section of the roof repaired, but Mike thought the rest of it was okay. Now we know it isn't, so time for a new roof. This freaking house has turned into a real money pit. We should've just had a new place built instead of trying to renovate this mess. Anyway, depending on the weather, a new roof will be put on sometime next week. Now, I just hope we don't have any heavy rain and get any inside damage before the new roof can be put on. Have I mentioned how much I hate being a home owner?



With the depressing weather and on going house problems, I hide in my studio, blast my stereo and play. This week it's mostly been Santana ( the Supernatural album- was that not the best album ever!?!) and Amy Winehouse. Amy really needs to get a handle on her addictions and craziness so she can cut a new album. I love her music, but that girl is sure a mess. What is it with so many talented and creative people who ruin their lives with drugs and alcohol? Such a waste.


And of course with all my time in the studio, I'm completing ufos at a record pace! Nah, not really, that's another one of my big fat lies as you can see from the pile of unfinished projects on one of my tables.

These are some more images I did for magnets. Using watercolors pencils, pens, markers, acrylic paint, and colored pencils. I just need to put a matte finish on this and mount them on the magnet sheets. They're 3"x4". Not a good photo of them but the lighting is crappy today.

I hope you all are getting more sunshine and blue skies than we are-